Photo by Chris Maggio

Alex G seems like the kind of person who’d have a complicated relationship with the concept of an “Afterlife”. He once showed up in a Nothing video carrying around a sign saying the ear was nigh, and his Philly peers are definitely of the company of full-blown nihilism. Life has gotten bigger in recent years for Alexander Giannascoli, as not only has he been on a hot streak critically with a run of albums over the last decade since breaking through as more than a prolific Bandcamp rocker with a cult following, but that of an accidental pop culture icon for Gen Z’s baggy fit listening tastes, now signed to a major label on RCA Records who will release his next effort, Headlights. Its first single isn’t too far of a stretch of the imagination for longtime listeners — he still sings in a wonky helium tongue, pondering personal existentialism and matters of human faith taking on the form of animals against varying reflections of light, and sonically, a singular slant on bedroom-pop, Philly scene experimental shoegaze, and odd folk shoestringed through a mandolin strum, albeit more tight-laced and spruced up for that major label debut. But really, the fact he didn’t have to transform much of his creative soul to get to that paradise should be enough to convince anyone of there being something beyond this life…

Directed by: Charlotte Rutherford

Alex G’s Headlights will be released July 18th on RCA Records.